Charitable, curious 'Skip' reaching out until the end

4:31 AM,
May 18, 2013

Written by

Zachary F. Volkert
zvolkert@rgj.com

As a young man, Melbourne James "Skip" Lipman roamed free through the streets of Chicago. His mother died when he was very young, and his father more or less allowed Lipman to learn about life on his own.

But without direction, Lipman's curious, compassionate personality steered his young life: He hopped trains across Chicago, from one end to the other, striking up conversations with whomever he rode next to, often the homeless.

"He just kind of lived on the streets," remembered his ex-wife, Beatrice Gillaland, who divorced Lipman in 1975. "But he was really rough, not that he was mean, ...